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NYC Medical Malpractice: Woman Sues After Brain Surgery Delay

A woman's serious brain surgery was delayed for weeks in New York because one surgeon was on vacation and another refused to perform the operation. Now, the woman is suing for medical malpractice.

Thirty-two-year-old Jennifer Ronca went to the North Shore University Hospital for brain surgery on April 10, 2009. The first half of the surgery went well, but the surgeon for the second half of the operation, Dr. Paolo Bolognese, was on vacation at the time. When the hospital asked chief of neurosurgery, Dr. Thomas Milhorat, to step in and complete the surgery, he refused, leaving a patient stranded and unconscious on the operating table. Hospital staff say that Milhorat was finishing a research paper in his office and did not want to be disturbed despite the patient in distress. Now, Ronca is suing the two doctors and the hospital for negligence and carelessness.

The surgery was rescheduled, but Ronca is still suffering, both from her condition and from the surgical error. She was being treated for Chiari malformation, in which part of the lower brain falls into the spinal canal. The hospital involved in the case said that although there was a mix-up concerning her operation, Ronca was not injured by their doctors and has no reason to sue.

The North Shore Hospital and its lucrative Chiari Institute are also juggling other New York medical malpractice suits involving the controversial brain operation that Bolognese and Milhorat perform.

The medical malpractice lawsuit was filed in Nassau County Supreme Court.

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